VI CHASED BY A RHINO 61 



single file at the head of the safari, I noticed, a 

 considerable way to our left front, a herd of 

 wildebeeste browsing quietly through the bushes, 

 looking in the distance for all the world like the 

 American bison. I had no desire to shoot one, 

 as I had obtained my trophy years before, when 

 they were much more numerous than they are now 

 and could be counted by thousands on the Athi 

 Plains. My friends, however, had up to that mo- 

 ment never even seen one, and they were naturally 

 very keen to obtain a specimen. I proposed, there- 

 fore, that they should gallop on ahead, under cover, 

 to a point which I indicated about a mile further 

 on, while I made a circuit so as to get on the far 

 side of the wily animals, and if possible drive them 

 towards the guns. Accordingly, off I went on 

 Aladdin, keeping in the thickest bush I could find 

 well out of sight of the wildebeeste. While going 

 along at a smart pace I almost rode on to a female 

 rhinoceros and her calf. Aladdin was so terrified 

 that he almost bounded from under me, and flew 

 at his utmost speed from the equally startled 

 animals. The old dam made a short charge, ac- 

 companied by the calf, but they very soon gave 

 up the chase and returned to the shady depths of 

 the thicket. 



After this I went more cautiously, as the place 

 was infested with rhino ; but before I had gone a 



